Students should complete their FAFSA during Financial Aid Awareness Month
While paying for college can be a barrier for many students, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands has prioritized affordability through Virginia Tech Advantage, a universitywide, multiyear commitment to offer a broad educational experience to undergraduate students from Virginia who have financial need.
As the university works to provide more opportunities to reduce the cost associated with obtaining a college degree, the University Scholarships and Financial Aid team is ready to help students take advantage of what’s available.
An essential step toward receiving financial aid and scholarships is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible. February is Financial Aid Awareness Month, so if you or your student have not completed the FAFSA, financial aid experts encourage you to do so now.
“Don’t wait until the last minute to complete the FAFSA application and scholarship applications. Complete them early,” said Rachel Smucker, Virginia Tech's director of scholarships. “Financial aid can be any variety of funding sources, and many families need to tap into at least one or more to help them pay for college.”
The FAFSA determines eligibility for grants, Federal Work-Study, federal loans, and many scholarships. For the fall 2023 term, 65.6 percent of undergraduate students completed the FAFSA.
It is important to remember that students must complete this form each year. Virginia Tech’s priority deadline for completing the FAFSA for the 2024-25 academic year is March 1.
For students who have already completed the FAFSA, there is an additional delay in receiving financial aid offers. Due to unforeseen delays at the federal level, Virginia Tech will not receive FAFSA information until mid-March. This won’t impact current students as much as prospective ones trying to make their college decisions.
“It’s not just, ‘I don’t have a financial aid offer. What happens next?’ For some students, it’s the difference between accepting the admissions decision from one school over another, and we understand this,” said John Lucas, deputy director of the Office of University Scholarships and Financial Aid. “Virginia Tech is committed to providing timely and comprehensive updates about the financial aid process.”
Virginia Tech anticipates that it will be able to provide families with financial aid information in mid-April. The deposit deadline for first-year students has also been extended to May 15.
The University Scholarships and Financial Aid website provides a wealth of resources, including guidance on how to apply for aid and a list of important financial aid and scholarship dates to remember. The deadline to complete the General Scholarship Application for maximum scholarship and financial aid consideration has passed, but prospective and incoming students can still complete the application through their admissions portal and continuing students can log into Scholarship Central directly.
